The Cold North and Warm South of it All
4-12-2013
Rob and Steve Tobin send us an excellent video this week of one of their many ice battles this winter on the Milwaukee lakefront with browns, steelhead and Lakers. Over about just five minutes the video also takes us to the open water Milwaukee Harbor. We post it on the home page. Check it out here. It’s well worth your time and shows the power of these Great Lakes fighters.
The Tobin boys write a very entertaining column for On Wisconsin Outdoors each issue. They are also part of the family-owned Tobin Jewelers. If you venture into their New Berlin or Mequon stores wearing something camo or blaze orange, you’re going to quickly be shooting the bull on hunting and fishing. The hunting garb also means great prices on quality jewelry for your wife or girlfriend. I took advantage of the Tobin promotion at Christmas and I also did the hardwater fishing with Steve and Rob near the Milwaukee Summerfest grounds. They know what they’re doing. Check out the Tobin article in the March-April issue of OWO posted on the homepage on fishing Lake Michigan trout year round. It is a blast.
What I’m sure isn’t a blast if you have a Period one turkey permit is waking up to this weather with no end in sight. Bad weather is part of hunting but you also hope for the great spring break-out when you’re working Tom. It’s just so much nicer to be nestled against a tree in the sunshine and fighting a nap rather than fighting frostbite. We’re posting lots of turkey information under “Upland Game” and look forward to posting your photos of that big gobbler. Send photos to ellis@onwisconsinoutdoors.com. Jim Olsson starts us out with this Iowa County Gobbler taken Day 1, period 1.
My period is next week and I’m traveling to southwest Wisconsin with my brother John. Hopefully, we will be posting a bird or two and story.
Under “Firearms”, you will see that we post a lot of material each week. I was pleased to see that the high school trapshooting season has once again begun, and we are posting results of the competition every week. The Burlington Demons are known for their excellent young shooting teams, but they are beginning to face some real challenges from other southeast high schools, most notably this week from the Jefferson Eagles. We’ll be inviting other Wisconsin leagues to send us their results. Reflective of the great majority, it’s really refreshing to see the number of young men and women who treat firearms and life with great respect and guns as a tool used in healthy competition. Also under “Firearms”, we post the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s response to gun control legislation passed in Connecticut. I recommend scrolling “Firearms” each week.
Ditto with “Outdoor News”. Among this week’s highlights find results of the Spring Hunting and Fishing Hearings and DNR Secretary Stepp’s response to the State of the Tribe address regarding tribal spearfishing declarations. Also, be aware that kids’ free fishing clinics are scheduled for April 13.
It looks like Wisconsin and other Midwest anglers that we met on the beaches of Perdido Key working the beautiful water of the Gulf of Mexico in both Alabama and Florida did better than Scott Heitman and me. The photos came in after last week’s Blog when I claimed fishing was slow. These people are mean, insinuating with their success that maybe I need a bigger piece of water. I think I might actually.
First of all, Owen VanderBerg, or simply the Man from Michi-Gan, may be only 8
But he knows his way around a steelhead river. The Fremont, Michigan stud was fishing the White River with his dad, Jon when he used a black jig tipped with a wax worm drifted under a float on New Year’s Eve to take this fine steelhead. The fish was released. We met the VanderBergs on the beach and swapped fishing and hunting stories. Jon also had good luck fishing from a small boat on the gulf, mostly with cats.
on the gulf, mostly with cats.
Photos of Wisconsinites fishing the Deep South came in courtesy of Barb Murray of Wauwatosa. Terry Murray of Wauwatosa also had good luck on cats shore fishing Perdido Key, and Bob Buettner had to release a 32 inch redfish that didn’t meet the legal size limit for the great eater. Redfish must be between 18-27 inches. Also not meeting the slot requirement was a beautiful redfish of 36 inches taken by Bob Kupfer of Grafton and Mike Mueller of White Lake, Wisconsin. Buettner also caught a shark.
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Not to be outdone, sisters Barb Murray and Colleen Kupfer opted not to purchase Florida fishing licenses, but did create this sand shark…which they affectionately name Bruce the Shark.
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This area is a great place to vacation and fish. We had fabulous, near cloudless weather five out of six days. I also received a lot of information prior to this trip from the Alabama Gulf Coast CVB. They will help you with lodging, dining, fishing, hunting entertainment, and any other questions you may have in planning your trip. I worked with Kim Chapman. Connect with her at 251-974-1510 or kchapman@gulfshores.com. You will literally run into hundreds of people from Wisconsin. Look for a 2013 Florida turkey hunting article by Barron, Wisconsin resident Neal Herrman in On Wisconsin Outdoors very soon. Neal completed his second “Grand Slam”.
Back to Wisconsin, and reality. Weather is influencing walleye and steelhead runs. Know this, if you’ve been sitting in a boat the last three days, my professional opinion is…you’re nuts. But send us your photos anyway.
Thanks for connecting with On Wisconsin Outdoors. We’re in production for the May-June issue. Shoot straight; as straight as the Burlington Demons and Jefferson Eagles.
Dick Ellis